Ruth Marcus, Washington Post: Politicians like to bet that reporters and their pesky questions will go away. Too often, they’re right. Thus, the drumbeat of demands for Donald Trump’s tax returns faded after he waved it all away with claims that a pending audit prevented the transparency he would otherwise be delighted to provide. .
Trump is, by far, the greatest offender here and, in this area at least, Clinton the avatar of full disclosure.
Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Bernie Sanders have claimed transparency but released only the initial, summary pages of their tax returns.
This dodge obscures all sorts of potentially significant information, from amounts and details about charitable giving to precise sources of income to their use of various tax shelters. Voters should not be misled by this phony forthcomingness.
Would they accept a president who provided a similarly flimsy summary?
Although an audit for a taxpayer of Trump’s magnitude and complexity is not evidence of tax mischief, if anything, it argues for more transparency, not less.
Trump says there was no “net” deficiency. Were there dodges that the IRS disallowed? Aren’t voters entitled to know about those? Richard Nixon, of all people, released his tax returns — in the midst of an IRS audit, while he was president. (He owed nearly a half-million dollars in taxes and interest.)
Next Tax Day will see a new president in the White House. Will it be the first in decades in which the president won’t be straight with fellow taxpayers?